Feminist Friday: The World’s Worst Excuse for Not Lezzing Out

You know that superstition that your ears are supposed to burn when someone talks about you? Thank goodness that doesn’t apply to ladybits. We’d all be constantly out of sorts. (Well, maybe not all of us; I would never judge your preferences.)

As always, Rachel Maddow is on the case when it comes to ladybits skullduggery, this time taking a look at the brazen attempts to use the uteruses of Washington, D.C. as political door prizes. District Congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton dropped in to register her umbrage.

Hey, a minor ladybits win! ThinkProgress reported that 150 doctors at Abington Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia protested a move to stop abortion services when it merged with the Catholic Holy Redeemer hospital. The doctors’ letter read, in part, “There is strong opposition to having our medical practice dictated by Catholic doctrine rather than our patients’ best interests and standard of care.” The merger was called off Wednesday as being “in the best interests of both organizations.” Thanks for caring enough to make some noise, docs.

Jennifer Carroll, Florida’s Lieutenant Governor (R) was accused by a former staffer of having an extramarital affair… with another woman. There were lots of potential ways to handle this, but Carroll went with saying “usually black women that look like me don’t engage in relationships like that.” See, LesBi ladies? Your orientation would be all sorted out if only you were lucky enough to be as hot as Jennifer Carroll.

Hey, remember how the Japanese women’s soccer team won the World Cup last year? They’re currently ranked third in the world, and they just flew to Europe for the Olympics… in coach. The Japanese men’s team, ranked 20th, flew Business Class. The New York Times pointed out that it’s not unusual for women’s Olympic teams to literally be treated as second-class citizens.

Hey, Marissa Mayer, the first female engineer at Google, is now the CEO of Yahoo! That’s a big deal! Good thing she fully understands the trail that feminists blazed for her so she could – wait, she what?

Oh, dear. Ms. Mayer, you should maybe check out some of the smart, hilarious feminists mentioned in the section of Awesomeness below. And by “should maybe” I mean “definitely.” Or at least take a moment to appreciate the facts that you can decide if and when to have kids (for now) and were able to choose a career path that involved getting listened to instead of harassed on a daily basis. You’ll never guess who made that happen.

Or voting. Voting is nice, Ms. Mayer. Those old-time suffragettes had lioness hearts under those big hats and sensible coats of theirs.

Photo from Library of Congress, via The Commons on Flickr

This Week in Thinky

Trust Women released this chart from ThinkProgress on paid maternity leave around the world.

Julie Goodridge was one of the plaintiffs in the case that opened up same-sex marriage for Massachusetts. She had some run-ins with the guy who was the governor at the time, whom you may have heard of. Suffice it to say she is not a fan.

In These Times had an interesting dialogue on what’s next for feminism, using the fascinating technique of having a bunch of actual feminists talk about it and not having some harrumphing sexist rumpsacks in for balance. You will be shocked to hear that it works.

The Jane Dough ran a short feature on Priscilla Nangurai, who is working to stop the practice of marrying off some young Kenyan girls as early as 12 or 14 – sometimes grown men “book” a future wife when the mother is pregnant. Nangurai is fighting to help girls continue their educations instead.

For some reason, the Paralympics have disabled embedding on this “Meet the Superhumans” promo video. Which a shame, because it is fantasticand features some incredible athletes of both genders. It’s well worth following the link to watch it.

Every now and then, mainstream journalists rediscover the notion that there are many kinds of feminists, including the kind that are really freaking hilarious. I hadn’t been familiar with Caitlin Moran before this week. I’m looking forward to reading her book and getting to know her better.